


Masks

by Duck_Life



Series: X-Men Shorties [25]
Category: X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: F/F, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Pre-Muir Island Saga, Precognition, Shadow King - Freeform, Undercover, background/leadup for the whole mystique-as-val thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-12-28 21:20:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21143372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/pseuds/Duck_Life
Summary: Still grieving Destiny's death, Mystique forms a plan to keep tabs on the Shadow King.





	Masks

Irene leaves a note behind.

Irene’s notes were always poignant and lovely, pages written out in her careful script. Sometimes the ink would be smudged a bit where she used her fingers to keep the lines even. No matter what she was writing about, her words always carried a sort of poetry, even the most gruesome of predictions. 

But that was before. 

The note clutched in Raven’s hand now says, essentially, “Valerie’s going to shoot you,” with a time and date. 

So, no, she’s not surprised to see Val Cooper standing in her apartment pointing a gun in her direction. 

  
  


When the onlookers show up, rubbernecking at the ambulance, Mystique changes shape and lurks in the shadows. She hears a reporter mention her name, and Freedom Force, and she lets the lie take root. Let the bastard think he took her down. Let the world think she’s been killed. 

  
  


“Nick, wait,” Mystique says, “Reisz is compromised. Valerie’s in the ICU. The Shadow King is taking over your government, and I’m presumed dead. There’s an opportunity here.” 

“You think you can take her place?” Fury asks. “No chance. Shadow King’d sniff you out in a second.”

“Not if I was in deep, deep cover,” Mystique points out. “What if I changed more than my face? What if I changed my mind, too? Like a sleeper agent.” 

“Would you be willing to submit to hypnosis?” he asks, sizing her up. 

What the hell? It’s not like she has anything left to lose. “I would.” 

Fury strokes his chin. “You could get close to Reisz, with him thinking you were under his control the entire time.” He nods. “It’s not a bad idea.” 

  
  


Raven takes the ring off her finger and places it in a box on her mantel. Val Cooper isn’t married. (Raven isn’t either, not really. If anything, she’s a widow.) She goes downstairs to meet the SHIELD hypnotist in the lobby. 

Her daughter is gone. Her wife is dead. And she is here, somehow, for some reason, hanging onto nothing. Like rust on an old ship. 

To be honest, she’s kind of looking forward to forgetting who she is. 

  
  


Fury is with her when the hypnotist puts her under. “At the right moment, you’ll need to snap out of the deception,” he tells her. Her head is in a fog, a cloud of mist that crept in on cat paws. “Mystique… Raven… You’ll need a wake word. Something that will bring you back to yourself. At the right moment, I’ll call you and give you the wake word. Say yes if you understand.”

She feels as if she’s in a dream. “Yes.” 

“And what should that word be?”

Images flood her mind, memories and experiences that shaped her, memories and experiences she tries to forget that shape her all the same. A child’s cry, a deep dark well. Victor Creed’s breath in her face. The sound of Irene’s laughter. Ashes blowing back in her face. The Golden Gate Bridge. A girl in gloves. 

Mystique feels slow and sluggish, but her voice is clear. “Rogue.” 


End file.
